Short communicationFood policy in the Canadian North: Is there a role for country food markets?
Introduction
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food security exists “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 2015). To be food secure then, individuals and households must be able to reliably access food, the availability of nutritious food must be sufficient, and it must be of an acceptable quality (Ford, 2009, Gregory et al., 2005). Food insecurity occurs when food is not accessible, available, and/or of sufficient quality, and is a major challenge in the Canadian Arctic, particularly for Inuit communities (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014, Loring and Gerlach, 2015). The Inuit Health Survey (2007–2008), for example, reported that 69% of Inuit households were food insecure in the territory of Nunavut (Egeland et al., 2011a, Egeland et al., 2010). Similarly, decision makers, Inuit organizations, and qualitative studies have documented significant challenges around food insecurity, with wide-ranging health and societal implications (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014).
In Nunavut, where food insecurity has been identified to be at a crisis level, various policy initiatives have been launched (Wakegijig et al., 2013). Between 2009 and 2010, for example, the Government of Nunavut (GN) developed a territorial poverty reduction plan, emphasizing the need to take action on food insecurity and creating the Nunavut Food Security Coalition. The Coalition seeks to make adequate supply of safe, culturally preferable, affordable, and nutritious food widely accessible, and released the Nunavut Food Security Strategy (NFSS) in 2014. A key focus of the NFSS is on finding ways to improve the accessibility, availability, and quality of ‘country foods’; locally harvested wildlife species which form a central component of the food system in Nunavut by which food is produced, processed, distributed, prepared, and consumed (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014). The consumption of country foods―the most common including ringed seal, caribou, arctic char, and beluga―has been linked to higher rates of food security, and enhanced physical and mental well-being, but is being compromised by social, economic, cultural, and environmental changes in many regions (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014, Egeland et al., 2011b, Loring and Gerlach, 2015). The NFSS also focuses on store bought foods, which in Nunavut are expensive, tend to be of poor nutritional quality (high sugar, carbohydrates, salt and fat contents), and are often described as lacking variety, accessibility and freshness, with inconsistent and unreliable availability (Mead et al., 2010, Sheehy et al., 2015). The main policy initiative of the Canadian federal government meanwhile, has been to provide a retail subsidy to make nutritious and perishable foods more available and affordable in northern stores through the Nutrition North Canada program (Galloway, 2014).
A key component of the NFSS is to examine whether the development of country food markets (CFMs) within communities offers a means of reducing food insecurity (objective 1.4; for other components of the NFSS see supplementary materials). This recommendation, in part, stems from Greenland, where country foods have long been commercially exchanged and documented rates of food insecurity are low (Goldhar et al., 2010). Given the similarities between Greenland and Nunavut―both are Inuit regions and have food systems in which country foods play an important role (see supplementary materials)―it has been argued that the Greenlandic experience offers transferable lessons for food policy (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014, Goldhar et al., 2010, NFSC, 2013). Despite interest in the development of CFMs in Nunavut, to our knowledge no studies have assessed what implications commercialization might have for food systems, or evaluated whether the Greenlandic model is transferable. In this paper we ask: do CFMs offer a feasible, sustainable, and effective model for improving the access, availability, and quality of country food in Nunavut? The work informs future priorities for the NFSS, and holds insights for other Inuit regions in Canada considering similar approaches to food policy.
Section snippets
Methods
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 key informants: 6 in Denmark, 18 in Greenland, 20 in Nunavut, and 1 in southern Canada. Interviews in Denmark were mostly conducted with researchers, and reflect the fact that Greenland is an autonomous Danish dependent territory, with many researchers who work in Greenland based in Denmark. A fixed list of questions was avoided, with an interview guide used identifying key themes to cover in interviews. Interview questions sought to examine: i)
Country food commercialization in Greenland and Nunavut
The sale of country foods has a long history in Greenland, and is tightly regulated. Every hunter and fisherman requires a general hunting license and have to report their annual catch (Sowa, 2015) (see supplementary materials). There are approximately 2500 ‘professional hunters’ who can sell their catch to processing plants, local institutions, private households, and CFMs (locally known as kalaalimineerniarfik). As one government representative from the Ministry of Fishing, Hunting, and
Discussion
This paper examines perspectives on the operation and effectiveness of country food markets (CFMs) in Greenland and evaluates if they offer a feasible, sustainable, and effective model for Nunavut. The Greenlandic experience has largely been positive. In Nunavut, however, while potential benefits of such markets were recognized, an underlying theme challenged whether they would provide the basis for strengthening the food security of the most vulnerable community members most in need of
Conclusion
It has been argued that developing country food markets (CFMs) similar to those in Greenland offers a model for improving the access, availability and quality of country foods in Nunavut. While the Greenland experience has been positive, we conclude based on the interviews conducted here that Nunavut is not currently in the position to develop CFMs given knowledge gaps and regulatory and institutional conditions. A strategy for developing CFMs would first have to consult communities across the
Acknowledgements
The work in this paper was funded by a contract from the Government of Nunavut. It also benefited from ongoing support from the CIHR Applied Public Chairs Program, FRSQ, ArcticNet, SSHRC, NSERC, and the IDRC. The research was undertaken under REB Certificate 204-1114 from McGill University. We would like to thank all the interviewees who made this research possible, and Ed McKenna and Natan Obed, co-chairs of the Nunavut Food Security Coalition, for their support in the project.
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